Scout’s Core Belief #1 – Take Action

How does anything get done? This may sound like a simple & obvious answer, but things get done by taking action. Will the lawn mow itself? Will the laundry magically get washed, folded, and put away? Or more importantly, will all of your financial goals be accomplished on their own? Of course the answer to all of these questions is no. All tasks & goals take some amount of effort to complete, whether you’re doing it all on your own, having someone help, or even delegating 100% of the work to another person.

Reasons for not Taking Action

With such a simple concept, why do so many people fail to take action? There may be a variety of reasons including factors such as busyness, laziness/procrastination, scared of the unknown, or analysis paralysis. I’ve experienced all of these, so you’re not alone if you have too.

Busyness – This is probably the most common reason for not taking action and the one we can all most easily relate to. Life is busy; most of us have full-time jobs, some of us have kids, some of us have time-consuming hobbies, and we all have some level of household chores (i.e. paying bills, grocery shopping, doing laundry, etc). Most of the time we get locked into our daily/weekly routines or just have so much going on that it’s tough to find any spare moment for new things.
Laziness/Procrastination – Similar to busyness, when there are occasional spare moments of time, our natural tendency is to take it easy and relax. This is not necessarily a bad thing because everyone needs a break to recharge. However, this can be hazardous if taken to the extreme where all free time is spent on mind-numbing activities (like watching tv or playing video games) instead of pursuing more productive activities such as working towards financial goals.
There were many cases in my own life when I’ve said to myself “I’ll get to that later” and before I knew it months or even years had passed. I’m ashamed to admit this, but The Squire and myself fell into this trap ourselves with this very website! We came up with the idea for Epic Financial Journey back in 2020 (at the height of the pandemic) with big hopes & dreams, yet failed to make any progress until now. The entire website & idea lay dormant for over 4 years until we decided to rededicate ourselves to building this platform and community.
Scared of the Unknown – Most of us get comfortable in our daily lives and with our normal routines, regardless of whether or not we’re in a good or bad situation. Whenever we want to implement new things, there’s always the question of “what’s going to happen and will it turn out bad?” This is especially true when it comes to making financial changes where money is involved. In many cases the default response is to keep-on-keeping-on because at least we know what to expect or we even rationalize with ourselves that our current situation “really isn’t that bad” (or at minimum it’s tolerable).
Analysis Paralysis – Many of us in the personal finance community have an analytic mind with the desire to thoroughly examine any situation before making a decision. Some of us even have an optimizer/maximizer personality, not wanting to even make a decision unless it’s the “best” decision possible; with my background as an engineer, I am firmly in this camp. Unfortunately this sort of mindset often leads to analysis paralysis, which means thinking about something over & over & over to come up with a “perfect” solution, but in the meantime never actually making a decision or doing anything. The intention is that once the “right” answer is found, everything will be solved, world-peace will be achieved, and there will be rainbows & unicorns for all. However, in most cases the reality is that time merely passes with no decision made and a sad realization that we’re still stuck at the exact same starting point & facing the exact same problem, all because we’ve spent time overthinking the issue rather than taking any steps to remedy it.

Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)

Taking action, even a small step, is a simple act yet very powerful. It’s better to do something (even if it turns out negative) and learn from it rather than doing nothing at all then realizing in the future that we’re still at the starting line. One of my favorite concepts is the Pareto Principle (often referred to as the 80/20 rule) which states that 80% of the outcome is attributed to 20% of the input. Put another way, even if you can’t completely finish a task or achieve a specific goal, taking just a small step forward in the right direction (putting in 20% of the overall work) will still lead to a solution that is predominantly correct (resulting in 80% of a perfect outcome). Note: Conversely, to achieve the remaining 20% of the outcome will actually take up 80% of the overall input/resources! The Pareto Principle really does demonstrate that “a little CAN go a long way”.

In my life I like to use the Pareto Principle as a guide to encourage me to take small steps/actions, knowing that while the outcome won’t be “perfect” or “100% complete”, it will be good enough and definitely better than if I had taken no action at all. As Voltaire said “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”

Strategies for Taking Action

I’ve personally failed to take action for ALL of the reasons previously mentioned. But over the years I’ve found a few different strategies that have helped me get moving: setting aside time, remembering that most changes are not permanent, implementing small changes (at first), talking to others, and satisficing over maximizing.

Setting Aside Time – One way to combat a busy schedule is to intentionally add to it. This may seem counterintuitive but sometimes the only way to find time is to make time. In most cases we get busy running from task to task, trying to arbitrarily complete items on our to-do list. On the other hand, how many times do you knowingly miss a dentist appointment, a meeting, or a flight? Very rarely, right? That’s because if we have an appointment we try our best to keep it. So if we take a proactive approach by setting aside time purposely to work on a specific task, free time will “magically” appear in our busy schedules.
Remembering that Most Changes are NOT Permanent – It’s natural to be fearful of the unknown and it’s good to be cautious & think through what may or may not happen. However, keep in mind that the majority of our actions are reversible. Except in extreme cases, if something goes wrong we can usually either change course or undo the action. The most valuable aspect is learning about what went right or wrong and being able to apply that knowledge in the future – this learning never happens by standing still.
Implementing Small Changes (at first) – Contrary to what is portrayed on tv or in the movies, not every decision in life has to be a huge ordeal or is a flashy, dramatic event. Sometimes real life-changing actions are the ones that appear small, but compound over time or that gradually steer us in the right direction.
Although slightly controversial, David Bach’s Latte Factor is a good example of this compounding philosophy – rather than buying a $5 latte each day, this money could be saved, resulting in hundreds of dollars by year end. Taken to the extreme, forgoing a latte over decades could result in tens of thousands (or perhaps even hundreds of thousands) of dollars saved, all from a small change to a daily coffee habit. Imagine taking action to make small changes in multiple areas of life – although each one may not seem like a big deal at the time, it may end up having a huge impact in the future.
Implementing small changes also helps combat the fear of making an irreversible decision. Continuing with the Latte Factor example, if someone tries this tactic but finds that after a month they really miss those lattes, they can always start purchasing lattes again. There is no shame in reversing course or undoing a decision. At the very least, taking action in the first place led to a more informed decision with better knowledge of how to make additional changes in the future.
Talking to Others – We are often afraid to take action or get stuck in the endless loop of analysis paralysis looking for the “perfect” solution. In both cases we merely don’t know what to expect and don’t want to make the wrong choice. Most of us also navigate finances alone due to the taboo nature of money and/or others’ disinterest. But wouldn’t it be great if we could have more insight into where our decision(s) will lead us?
Well, the good news is that this is actually possible by seeking out others who have taken similar actions or are in similar life situations. Particularly in the world of personal finance & financial independence there are so many others in the community who have already done what each of us hopes to do. The key is to find those people and use them as a resource. From my personal experience >99% of people in the FI community are willing & eager to help, so don’t be hesitant. Plus, there is already a community here at Epic Financial Journey. As we’ve expressed in our mission statement, one of our goals is to help YOU on your personal financial journey – we’re always here for you, so just reach out.
Satisficing Over Maximizing – I mentioned previously that I am a natural optimizer/maximizer, meaning that I put a great deal of time & effort into seeking the “best” decision possible. An alternate decision-making process is called satisficing, which involves defining a minimum set of criteria/requirements then choosing any solution that meets this minimal threshold. This strategy’s goal is to identify a satisfactory/adequate answer, rather than an optimal solution. Similar to the Pareto Principle, the resulting outcome is “good enough” and helps avoid the trap of analysis paralysis by reducing the decision-making effort due to the increased number of acceptable solutions. Note: Full-disclosure that while I believe in the idea of satisficing and recommend it to others, I still catch myself frequently in the optimizer/maximizer mindset and may never be able to fully abandon these natural tendencies.

Just Do It

At the end of the day I encourage everyone to take action, no matter how large or how small. The only way to make progress in life and on our personal financial journeys is to move forward – even if our initial direction is incorrect, we can course-correct almost every time to get back on track. There is an ancient Chinese proverb that is just as applicable today as it was many centuries ago: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

Links/Resources

Reader Questions

Do you find it hard to take action? Do you associate with any of the reasons/traps described here or are there any others that weren’t mentioned?
Have you used any of the strategies described here to help take action? Are there any other strategies that you’ve used that weren’t mentioned?

Leave your answers or comments below – or email us directly at info@epicfinancialjourney.com